Ringo Starr | |
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_exclusive_interview_0-14_screenshot_(portrait_crop).jpg) Starr in 2019 | |
| Born | Richard Starkey 7 July 1940 Liverpool, England |
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| Years active | 1957–present |
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| Children | 3, including Zak Starkey |
| Relatives | Francesca Gregorini (stepdaughter) |
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| Member of | Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band |
| Formerly of | |
| Website | ringostarr |
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Sir Richard Starkey MBE (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, usually for one song on each album, including "Yellow Submarine" and "With a Little Help from My Friends". He also wrote and sang the Beatles songs "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden", and is credited as a co-writer of four others.
Starr was afflicted by life-threatening illnesses during childhood, with periods of prolonged hospitalisation. As a teenager Starr became interested in the UK skiffle craze and developed a fervent admiration for the genre. In 1957, he co-founded his first band, the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group, which earned several prestigious local bookings before the fad succumbed to American rock and roll around early 1958. When the Beatles formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool group, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. After achieving moderate success in the UK and Hamburg, he quit the Hurricanes when he was asked to join the Beatles in August 1962, replacing Pete Best.
In addition to the Beatles' films, Starr has acted in numerous others. After the Beatles disbanded, he released several successful singles including the US top-ten hit "It Don't Come Easy", and number ones "Photograph" and "You're Sixteen". His most successful UK single was "Back Off Boogaloo", which peaked at number two. He achieved commercial and critical success with his 1973 album Ringo, which was a top-ten release in both the UK and the US. Starr has also featured in numerous documentaries, hosted television shows, narrated the first two series of the children's television programme Thomas & Friends and portrayed "Mr. Conductor" during the first season of the PBS children's television series Shining Time Station. Since 1989, he has toured with thirteen variations of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.
Starr's playing style, which emphasised feel over technical virtuosity, influenced many drummers to reconsider their playing from a compositional perspective. He also influenced various modern drumming techniques, such as the matched grip, tuning the drums lower, and using muffling devices on tonal rings.[2] In his opinion, his finest recorded performance was on the Beatles' "Rain".[3] In 1999, he was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame.[4] In 2011, Rolling Stone readers named him the fifth-greatest drummer of all time. He was inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a Beatle in 1988 and as a solo artist in 2015,[5] and appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to music.[6]
- ^ "Ringo Starr". Front Row. 31 December 2008. BBC Radio 4. Archived from the original on 24 September 2023. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
PASwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Miles 1997, p. 280.
- ^ "Modern Drummer's Readers Poll Archive, 1979–2014". Modern Drummer. Archived from the original on 21 August 2015. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
- ^ "2015 Rock Hall inductees". Radio.com. Archived from the original on 17 December 2014. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
- ^ "Arise, Sir Ringo! Beatles drummer Ringo Starr receives knighthood". NME. 20 March 2018. Archived from the original on 20 March 2018. Retrieved 20 March 2018.